when the stock market crashed as a result of
Trump’s tariffs many US politicians bought the dip And they didn’t just get lucky Their
timing was so spot-on that they made serious gains when the market bounced back The thing is
their trades were so welltimed that it’s raised a few eyebrows Logically the only way they
could pull this off is if they had access to information that us plebs didn’t In other words
insider trading That’s why today we’re diving deep into the murky waters of insider trading on
Capitol Hill So let’s hold our noses and take the plunge Recently Democrat politicians have been
going allin on accusations that President Trump’s recent tariff announcements were an attempt
to manipulate the market And they’re not alone Many believe that these moves were designed
to allow his associates to make a pretty penny through insider trading Now for anyone unfamiliar
insider trading refers to when someone trades stocks or other securities using privileged
information not available to the general public You can think of it like this Imagine you’re in
a closed door meeting at the company you work for and leadership announces a major expansion plan At
that point you’re party to information that could significantly affect the company’s stock price
Information regular investors don’t have access to Now using that intel to buy or sell shares
gives you an unfair edge allowing you to cash in before the news goes public And this kind of shady
activity happens all the time And yes US politics is no exception But why are people accusing Trump
of market manipulation well to understand this we need to understand what caused the markets to move
in the first place As you’ll know Trump became president back in January and since then he’s
introduced an aggressive and sweeping trade agenda centered around the idea of enriching Americans
through protectionism He initially proposed 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico later
formalized by executive orders alongside a 10% duty on Chinese goods Trump justified these moves
by declaring a national emergency on immigration and drug trafficking Naturally the affected
nations weren’t impressed and began dishing out retaliatory threats China in particular
responded with tariffs on US coal energy and agricultural machinery along with an antitrust
probe into Google Tensions then intensified as Trump raised tariffs on steel and aluminium
or aluminum if you prefer to say it wrong He also ended previous exemptions and introduced
reciprocal tariffs to match foreign import duties This controversial move stoked fears of global
market disruption Then throughout March and April Trump continued to expand his tariff regime
hitting sectors like copper timber autos and oil and at one point deliberately targeting nations
that engaged with Venezuela His reciprocal tariff system imposed varying rates based on trade
imbalances with China the EU Japan and South Korea receiving particularly steep levies The US
also doubled existing tariffs on Chinese imports and imposed new taxes on autoimp imports At
this point enough was enough and retaliatory tariffs were triggered by Canada China and the EU
By April tensions had reached a fever pitch Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 125% which was
later revised to 145% when fentinel related duties were included China countered with an 84% levy
while Canada and the EU announced billions in retaliatory tariffs too Now throughout all of this
investors were taking hits left right and center In fact the S&P 500 nos dived almost 20% with
roughly $10 trillion wiped off the stock market For perspective some analysts have compared the
recent crash to Black Thursday when Wall Street collapsed way back in 1929 almost a century ago
And yet despite all of this some politicians have been making some serious bank while everyone
else has been getting well and truly wrecked What’s suspicious is that a handful of investors
including some politicians were able to buy the dip to near perfection just as Trump announced a
pause on his tariffs The stock market subsequently breathed an almighty sigh of relief causing
markets to rally and netting these investors some hefty profits As such it’s not hard to see
why many are skeptical about the true intentions of these recent moves Oh and by the way if
you’re enjoying the video so far punch those like and subscribe buttons to show them who’s
boss And slap that notification bell too so you don’t miss our next one Now obviously insider
trading isn’t anything new Heck the New York Times found that between 2019 and 2021 97 members of
Congress reported trades in companies influenced by their committees Now logically being on a
committee means having access to information that’s unavailable to others Some politicians
have even capitalized on privileged information to make profit during the worst economic storms
such as the financial meltdown in 2008 and during the pandemic In the case of the 2008 crash a
selection of key congressional leaders were summoned to a closed-d dooror emergency meeting
in Washington by then Fed Chairman Ben Bernani and then Treasury Secretary Hank Pollson Attendees
were then warned about the imminent collapse of the global financial system if they didn’t bail
out banks fast As Bernani put it quote “If we don’t do this tomorrow we won’t have an economy on
Monday.” As soon as that meeting was over many of those present wasted no time in capitalizing on
this intel Notable examples include Dick Durban who sold more than $110,000 in stocks right
after the meeting He also bought a boatload of Barkshire Haway stock right before it invested in
Goldman Sachs which the government later supported financially Hm Sheldon White House was another
example selling anywhere between $250,000 and $600,000 in stock before the market collapsed Or
Spencer Bakus who sold between 100,000 and 250,000 in Croup stock the day before it crashed Meanwhile
Jim Moran left the meeting and immediately made trades in 90 different companies more than on any
other day that year Goodness what a coincidence The pandemic was a similar story In 2020 several
senators attended a closed Senate meeting where they learned about the magnitude of the pandemic
and how it would likely impact the US Rather than spreading the word they instead contacted their
brokers Many dumped a ton of stocks while others bought stocks in pharmaceutical companies For
example Richard Burr sold anywhere between $628,000 and $1.7 million in stocks and his
brother-in-law soon followed Meanwhile David Peru famously made 112 transactions after the meeting
where he dumped roughly $825,000 in stocks and bought around $1.5 million of stocks in companies
that would actually benefit from the pandemic such as PPE manufacturers Another was Diane Feinstein
whose husband just happened to sell millions of dollars worth of shares right before the market
crashed I’ll bet not one of you at home has had bedtime discussions that were anything like as
lucrative And there’s Kelly Laughler who alongside her husband Jeffrey sold between $1.2 million
and $3.1 million worth of stocks They also bought stocks in Citrix Systems a cloud computing company
which pumped after a correction Oh and Jeffrey just so happens to be the founder chairman and
CEO of the New York Stock Exchange Another happy coincidence eh now as you’ll have no doubt noticed
the values of the trades we’ve just mentioned are incredibly vague This is for one very
specific reason which we’ll come back to later that deserves a shout out In fact she deserves
her very own section Arguably the most notorious politician in Congress to face insider trading
accusations is Nancy Pelosi who was once the 52nd speaker of the House of Representatives
Now Nancy reportedly has a net worth of around $274 million despite a modest salary of just
$174,000 However she also reportedly makes around $1 million per month through other financial
means Nancy has a habit of performing incredibly well against the stock market Too well in fact If
insider trading allegations are true then Nancy is an example of how corrupt politicians can become
Nancy made a boatload of cash from Nvidia call options that she and her husband Paul purchased
on the 22nd of November 2023 in a leveraged bet that Nvidia share price would go up Oh and
incidentally Paul also runs a VC firm that he founded Anyway it’s worth mentioning that in
the month prior to their purchase Nvidia’s price had already soared by 22% To many this was an
awful entry point However the trade was placed shortly after Nancy visited Taiwan and met with
the chairman of another semiconductor company Sure enough Nvidia calls went up by 85% netting
the Pelosis a cheeky $1.8 8 million in just 93 days more than eight times NY’s annual salary
What’s crazy is that the trade was placed while Congress was still in session 20 minutes before
the close of the market And notably Nancy was already trading millions in Nvidia stock in the
summer of 2022 before voting on a semiconductor bill put forward by the Biden administration One
month later she then helped table a bill that introduced a congressional trading ban However
this bill was flawed and full of loopholes likely by design Nancy then stepped away from trading
permanently Well that is until her leverage bet on Nvidia in late 2023 Clearly that was too big
an opportunity to miss And this isn’t the only time she’s made suspiciously welltimed trades
In July 2024 her husband sold 2,000 shares of Visa worth over half a million dollars just
weeks before the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the company As for this year
meanwhile NY’s investment in Tempest AI yielded a hefty 330% return significantly outperforming
a decimated stock market Obviously this has drawn further attention to her trading activities Oh
Nancy will you ever learn now this brings us to the more recent allegations of insider trading
That’s because while Trump was busy dishing out import tariffs to countries like a toddler
spreading germs at a daycare center other members of Congress were busy shuffling their portfolios
At the time of shooting just three names stand out but we wouldn’t be at all surprised if more
come out of the woodwork in due course In any case the first politician facing insider trading
accusations is Representative Rob Bresnahan Fun fact Rob once wrote in an article that quote
“Too often we hear about how politicians are making millions of dollars during their time in
office and it is sickening If we want to restore trust in government and our political leaders then
Congress needs to lead with these policies.” Rob also told voters that once elected he’d co-sponsor
legislation that would ban congressional stock trading Well it turns out that he was just saying
whatever it took to get in office Since being sworn in he hasn’t suggested or supported any
legislation of the sort In fact it’s much worse It turns out that Rob is one of the most active
stock traders to join Congress Specifically Rob has made a whopping 283 trades since January
according to tracking website Capital Trades As the New York Times reports he’s purchased up to
$1.7 million worth of stock and has sold around $3 million in stock Among Rob’s many many trades
is his sale of up to $50,000 of stock in Alibaba which has ties to the Chinese Communist Party But
hey it’s probably just a coincidence that this trade was made on the very same day that Trump
announced he’d be doubling Chinese import tariffs Well maybe Rob just got lucky Really lucky in fact
because a spokesperson for Rob said that he relies on a financial adviser to trade stocks on his
behalf and never knows about the trades H Another politician meanwhile who’s been shoved into the
limelight is Representative Marjgerie Taylor Green who chairs the House Subcommittee on Delivering
on Government Efficiency or Doge not to be confused with Elon Musk’s Department of Government
Efficiency which is also called Doge A rabbit hole for another video perhaps Anywh who Marjgerie or
MTG as she’s often called made stock purchases of anywhere between $21,000 and $315,000 on the
8th and 9th of April and also dumped between $50,000 and $100,000 in Treasury bills And as luck
would have it MTG’s trades happened to be made on the day before and the day of Trump’s sweeping
tariff announcement Crazy right oh and when MTG’s trades were examined in the past her response
was that she also relies on a financial adviser to trade on her behalf and doesn’t have any input
H where have I heard that one before now at the heart of insider trading allegations is none other
than President Trump himself That’s because on the 9th of April Trump took to Truth Social to
write that quote “This is a good time to buy.” He wrote it in all caps too so he obviously meant
it And roughly 4 hours later Trump said he was pausing most tariffs on every country except China
resulting in massive 1-day stock market gains And as if that wasn’t already suspicious enough Trump
ended the post with his initials DJT something he doesn’t usually do However this also happens
to be the ticker for Trump Media and Technology Group which pumped around 23% that day But it
gets worse Just 1 hour after Trump announced the pause on tariffs he was then caught on camera
bragging about enriching a few of his billionaire buddies namely Charles Schwab and Roger Penske
Naturally Democrats wasted no time in slamming Trump for these decisions And let’s be honest it’s
not like they don’t have a case As such a handful of Democratic lawmakers have called on the SEC to
investigate the possibility of market manipulation and insider trading activity Senator Elizabeth
Warren responded to the clip saying this was quote Donald Trump in a nutshell doing everything
he can to make the ultra rich even richer But it’s worth remembering that it wasn’t
all that different under the Democrats just a few months ago Now as with many instances of
insider trading that have happened in the past these recent trades have caused many investors
to look at ways to copy the trading activity of congressional members And as it happens there
are a few websites that you can use to track the trading activity of politicians One of these is
the capital trades website we mentioned earlier Others include the House Stock Watcher website
which tracks the trading activity of members of the House obviously and its sister website
Senate Stock Watcher which yep you guessed it tracks the trading activity of members of the
Senate There’s also a handful of websites that track alleged insider trading activity across
all kinds of sectors not just politics The most notable tracker here has to be Unusual Wales which
has a dedicated section tracking insider trades Unusual Wales also has a site that tracks the
trading activity of politicians Although this doesn’t necessarily mean that all trades listed
here are insider trading activity However if you see a name pop up on both lists there’s a good
chance you’re looking at something suspicious In any case we can use this site to track some of
the politicians we’ve mentioned So as an example let’s zoom in on good old Marjgerie Taylor Green
who you’ll recall is under the spotlight for her questionable trades Here we can see that MTG
has recently invested in a bunch of different companies some of which include Tesla Palanteer
Technologies Nike JP Morgan Amazon Nvidia and Apple to name just a handful Anyhow we’ll leave
links to these sites and a handful of others down in the description below so you can keep up
with the latest activity Now while congressional members are legally allowed to participate in the
stock market trading with privileged information is illegal The problem is that enforcing these
laws is incredibly difficult That’s simply because there’s usually a lack of a paper trail And what
this means is that accusations normally involve a whole lot of conjecture and not a lot of evidence
Not only that but politicians can basically ignore these laws with very little consequence
For context back in 2012 President Obama signed into law the stop trading on congressional
knowledge or stock Act Respect to whoever came up with that acronym The law prohibits
the use of non-public information for private profit including insider trading by members of
Congress and other government employees However it doesn’t ban politicians from trading altogether
In fact the law merely requires them to disclose trades exceeding $1,000 within 45 days of the
transaction long after other investors can react They also only have to note broad ranges rather
than specific dollar amounts which is why the trade values we’ve mentioned today have been so
vague Frustrating isn’t it and what’s more is that politicians will typically either wait until
the deadline date or simply miss the deadline entirely But what happens when politicians don’t
abide by these rules I hear you ask well they face penalties of $200 Yeah you did indeed hear that
correctly It’s hardly a deterrent is it $200 is what some of these shysters will spend on lunch
And to make things worse there’s not a single publicly known case of any politician ever paying
this fine Naturally then this begs the question of whether insider trading will ever be banned Well
an attempt to do so was made in 2023 when senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Josh Holt introduced the
Ban Stock Trading for Government Officials Act of 2023 I’ll be honest it’s not as imaginatively
titled as the Stock Act Anywh who the act aims to amend existing laws by imposing a flatout ban on
senior government folk and their families owning or trading stocks in order to mitigate conflicts
of interest Notably though the bill doesn’t let anyone off the hook for using blind trusts which
are managed by independent third parties and which the beneficiary supposedly has no knowledge of or
influence over Violating this rule would result in fines of at least 10% of the value of the
prohibited investments Additionally executive branch employees would be required to forfeit any
stock profits and face fines of at least $10,000 or more whichever is greater Not a complete
deterrent granted but definitely a step in the right direction Unsurprisingly though the bill has
seen little attention from the very people it’s meant to legislate At the time of shooting the
bill’s been read twice and referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs No further legislative action such as hearings amendments or votes has been recorded
since its introduction though Since then a handful of other bills have been proposed to address stock
trading by government officials These include the ending trading and holdings in congressional
stocks or ethics act Another round of applause for that acronym This act was introduced in April
2023 while the ban congressional stock trading act was introduced in September 2023 There’s also been
the so-called Stock Act 2.0 which was introduced in December 2023 and again in January 2024 and
more recently the End Congressional Stock Trading Act was introduced in 2025 These proposals suggest
an interest in addressing congressional trading concerns However at the time of shooting none
of these bills have made it into law Obviously then there’s much more work that needs to be
done before insider trading is stamped out for good on Capitol Hill If we ever get there then
logically investors won’t have to compete with politicians who have an unfair advantage And when
that happens America will be one step closer to becoming the land of opportunity Just don’t hold
your breath Now if you want to learn more about the impact of Trump’s tariffs then you can do so
by checking out this video over here And if you want to see our top five stock picks for crypto
exposure then you can check out this video right over here Thank you all for watching and we’ll
see you in the next one This is Guy signing off
